Page 21 of Sins of Arrogance (Syndicate Sins #1)

MICK

Present Day

Rory stops me outside the apartment. "Hex needs to talk to you."

Along with Bryce, Rory and Conor, Dr. Ximena Morales is one of the best recruits I ever made to our syndicate.

If she needs to talk to me, it's about the whisper gun project. And if she called on a Sunday, it's urgent.

With a flash of regret that's been happening more and more when I have to walk away from my family, I nod.

"I'll be back in time to tuck you in for bed," I promise Fitz.

Kara's eyes widen. We both know I don't usually get home until after our son and she have gone to sleep.

I love waking my wife with my mouth between her legs. Not something I need to think about before talking to the gun tech guru.

With a tiny shrug, Kara turns away to take our son inside the apartment.

I don't know what's driving me, but I grab her shoulder and turn her back toward me.

Her mouth is open on a gasp when my lips cover hers. I kiss her until she's pressing into me, her body soft the way I like it.

"Mommy and da kissing in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g," Fitz sings loudly.

Kara's body stiffens and she pulls back.

With another dose of regret, I let her. "Let me guess, another thing he learned from Enoch?"

"More likely he learned it in Kindergarten," Kara says. "Didn't you sing it to taunt your friends when you were little?"

"Nah." I didn't have friends in primary school.

Other than my dog and he wasn't going to sing songs with me, was he?

I reluctantly leave my wife and son to call Hex. The brilliant scientist thinks she's made a breakthrough cooling the barrel, but she needs more materials to run the tests she wants to.

Not an emergency. But not unimportant either.

I hope she's right about cooling the barrel. Doesn't matter how quiet the gun is if it melts in your hand and burns a good chunk of skin along with it.

Brogan tracks me down right after I end my call with Hex. Entering my office, he shuts the door behind him and glowers. "What the fuck was that at dinner?"

I go still and stare him down until he tugs at the collar of his custom-tailored shirt. "Good question. What the feckin' hell did you think you were doing reprimanding my wife and son?"

"She's my daughter. He's my grandson," Brogan blusters.

"You ever talk to Kara like that again and I'll cut out your tongue and have the chef turn it into soup," I promise my father-in-law.

Brogan laughs uneasily. "You've got a warped sense of humor, boyo."

"Do you see me laughing?"

Brogan clears his throat. "Okay, you're right. I shouldn't have been so hard on either of them. I'm just not used to my daughter being so obstinate. Not since she was a little girl anyway."

He's made comments before, about how Kara used to be stubborn and brash. She's still stubborn, even if he refuses to see her quiet rebellions.

Like telling me point blank if I sent Fitz to school in Boston, she was going with him. She meant it.

I didn't want either of them to leave, but for a while there, we were on the verge of war with the Genovese Family.

If it came to war, I would have sent them to Dublin though, so I gave up on Boston as a stopgap security measure.

"When did she change?" I ask.

Brogan rubs his hand over his face. "When my sister-in-law was murdered. Charity was like a mother to my girls. They both took her death hard."

My wife didn't just see her aunt shot, but her little sister as well, but Brogan ignores that fact.

"No child should have to witness the murder of someone they love." Or any murder.

When I kill, I never do it in front of the innocent.

"It's a dangerous life." Brogan shrugs, then frowns. "I only wish Fiona would snap out of it. She's let it affect her for more than a decade."

Fiona survived being shot, but she'd been in a coma for nine days. Her anxiety is understandable, even if it's not something I can experience.

And if Kara used to be impetuous, she's been affected as well, because she's anything but. Her more amenable nature isn't something her father is going to mind though, is it?

"Fi is who she is. She's happy." Even I know that people don't just snap out of childhood trauma.

His youngest needs therapy, but that's not going to happen unless she does what Kara has and sees someone online in secret. Maybe I should suggest it to my wife.

If there's a chance for Fiona to be able to live a less anxiety-filled life, she deserves it.

Brogan frowns heavily. "She could be happier."

"You mean you could be happier using her to secure another alliance."

"That's not happening," Brogan grumbles.

"No, it's not." I respect the hell out of my wife's cousin for negotiating Fiona's freedom from an arranged marriage.

Róise made it a condition for her being willing to enter a marriage alliance with the De Lucas. We needed that alliance to end decades of strife between the Shaughnessy Mob and the Cosa Nostra.

And she took advantage of our need to force Brogan into a promise I would never let him break.

"About London, I need you there the day after tomorrow," Brogan changes the subject.

"You heard Kara. She's not going. I'm not leaving her and Fitz here with a potential spy living under our roof." And even if Dierdre isn't a spy, she's a dramatic pain-in-the-ass I don't want causing trouble with, or for, my wife.

"You'll just have to change her mind," Brogan says complacently.

I lean back in my chair and meet his gaze, making no effort at a pretense of normality. "No."

"What the fuck? You know I need you there, Mick. There's no one else we can trust with this negotiation."

"Are you saying you don't trust yourself to handle it?" I gibe.

"You know that's not what I'm saying. It's your job, damn it!"

"No, my job is to protect my family. Everything else is secondary."

"You don't think I can keep my own daughter and grandson safe?" he demands, offence in every line of his tall frame.

I don't sugar coat it. "Nah."

"Fuck me." Brogan leaps to his feet. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

"Do you have feelings for Hope?" I ask.

Brogan rears back. "What in the hell does that have to do with this?"

"If you do, you lost major ground with her at dinner tonight," I point out.

"I don't know what you think you know—"

I don't let him finish his false denials. "You hurt her by playing up to Dierdre."

"Well, you sure as hell weren't doing it."

"It wasn't necessary." And I already pissed my gentle wife off to the point she barely acknowledged me over dinner.

"I don't agree."

"Clearly."

"You think it upset Hope?" he asks, shocking me.

I didn't think Brogan would acknowledge his interest in the widow with two children.

"I know it did. The question is: how come you don't?"

"She's always quiet."

Which means he noticed she was quieter than usual at dinner and is trying to tell himself it didn't mean anything. I don’t give a fuck.

I shrug. "If you want to regain lost ground, take her with you to London. Kara will watch Enoch and Esther."

That's one thing I'm sure my wife won't balk at, regardless of her out of character behavior lately.

Up until dinner tonight, her usual reserve was in place with Hope, but Kara welcomed the two children with warm generosity when they came to live at the mansion.

"Tonight's dinner notwithstanding…" Brogan pauses to glare at me. "You have a better chance of discovering Dierdre's real reason for being here than I do."

"Agreed." I also have a better chance of gathering intel on what is happening with the Northies.

And I'll take out the lot of them if they're a potential threat to Kara and Fitz's safety.

It's time to find out what Dierdre knows and how she knows it.

Which means no matter how much I would rather go back to our apartment, I need to find Dierdre for a soft interrogation.